Getting a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Movement Screen I believe is a must for proper golf exercise programing.
My goal is to provide valuable insight so you can make a safe and educated decision before working with someone claiming to be able to provide a golf specific exercise program.
There are quite a few health/fitness trainers out there that claim they have the perfect golf fitness program. With this in mind, I want to make the reader aware that there are several online certifications that require very little education and/or experience to get a Personal Trainer certification. Here’s a word of caution.
Florida Sports Docs (FSD) suggests that when you are thinking about hiring someone to help you improve your golf game through fitness programming they at a minimum should have a bachelors degree in exercise science/physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, physical therapy or athletic training. We also believe that it is equally important that they have the ability to perform a TPI physical movement screen. I’m not suggesting that this specific screen is the one and only, but I have at least 22 great reasons to recommend it.
- 22 of the Top 25 players in the World are advised by TPI experts!
- 11 of the last 16 Major Championships were won by TPI advised players!
- 65 of the last 85 PGA Events were won by TPI advised players!
TPI is an excellent, nationally recognized professional golf movement screen certification you can look for when hiring a health professional/trainer. A health professional/trainer that is not screening your physical movement abilities is guessing on the movements you can or cannot perform, why not know?
It’s important to remember that each golfer has different physiological needs. Don’t be fooled just because you’re fit doesn’t mean you will have great golf performance. Golf Fitness is different than other types of fitness.
Too often people assume that fitness training and exercise will automatically make them healthier and move better. Unfortunately there is not a hand full of exercises or single exercise program that can cover the full movement spectrum. Yes it’s possible to practice one or two movements and see improvement, but that’s improvement only in those specific movements. This limited approach may sometimes help you move better but, sometimes it contributes to dysfunction.
Let’s look at what being certified to perform a TPI physical screen and what it represents as it relates to golf specific exercise programming.
At Florida Sports Docs (FSD) we perform TPI physical movement screens on every individual golfer or team. This evaluation is specifically designed to identify physical restrictions and movement dysfunction that may be contributing to swing faults and limiting the golfers potential. The screen also establishes a movement baseline, creates comparable industry standards/consistency and opens up lines of communication from the medical field to the golf course. It can also play a role in helping predict potential for injury, assesses quality of movement needed to perform a quality golf swing and most of all provides specific individualized purpose for golf exercise/corrective programming.
As we age and or get injured the golfer’s fundamental movement patterns can become disrupted/compromised causing pain and/or compensation. The loss of these fundamental patterns leads to restriction in movement patterns, decreases in strength, power, stability, mobility and muscular endurance.
Bottom line is, If you are not getting screened, important physical issues can get missed and predispose you to further injury and your program will not be as focused on your specific physical (movement) needs.
Not to say that with the right amount of education and experience that “professionally guessing” can’t yield some positive outcomes, but it may also lead to inconsistencies and take objective qualities of care out of the diagnosing/treatment and exercise programming picture.
Let’s look at an example of guessing: Say you’re going to see a personal trainer because you want to improve your balance and stability to help improve your golf game. Many times your not assessed through any specific movement screen and typically one of the first things the trainer does is put you on a Bosu ball or other balancing apparatus. I personally think this should be considered malpractice.
Think about it, if a person can’t balance on the ground using just their body weight, they surely shouldn’t be immediately put on any balancing apparatus.
What would be a wiser, more effective approach is to first determine physically why they have poor balance? It should not be automatically assumed that it’s purely a strength issue. Poor balance can come from many sources, some of which may be of a serious medical nature. However, it is common to see in gyms and health clubs stabilization programs that attempt to train the stabilizers like primary movers by using contraction and extension movements on a variety of balancing modalities and machines. This type of training program assumes that isolating and strengthening a stabilizer will cause it to become more stable. This type of training approach, applied to muscles with a stabilizing role will likely increase concentric strength, but have little effect on neurological timing and motor recruitment. Timing and recruitment are critical components in creating proper stabilization. So the idea of initially training with weights, bands, weight machines on an unbalanced surface to get better balance is at best misguided and potentially dangerous for the golfer.
Working with a health/fitness professional that is qualified in performing TPI movement screen gives the professional and the golfer insight on what muscular system and movement pattern is dysfunctional and why. Once it’s been established what’s causing the dysfunction (and not a medical condition) the exercise/treatment programming goal should be to address dysfunction first. This may be accomplished through a variety of ground based body weight movement pattern techniques, addressing myo-fascial issues and neuromuscular training before any type of balance apparatus is considered.
So, before you start working with a “Golf Movement Specialist”, check out their degree, professional education, experience and make sure they are certified in conducting a TPI physical movement screen.
Taking your golf game to the next level may be in the balance.